Date: The early morning of May 12, 1943. Location: Grid DT69, off the coast of the Western Sahara desert
The weather is pleasant and offers a refreshing breeze to the watch of U-519. The crew below goes about its maintenance duties and the smutje is putting breakfast together for the men. Dawn is just breaking over the horizon.
A couple of days ago, we received a radio report of a small convoy. However, we were not in a position to prosecute. The convoy was headed NNE, and I made the decision that we would have to burn too much fuel to catch up. The allied radar would not let us maneuver into a favorable position once we did catch up. No, best to let them come to us.
Suddenly a shout from the conning tower...
"SHIP SPOTTED!"
I scramble up the ladder and peer towards the horizon. Two large freighters were plying their way northwards. I give the orders to trim the boat lower in the water and maneuver us into a firing position. As we approach, the officer of the watch identifies the ships as a large merchant and an ore carrier.
I smile at the prospect of making up for our earlier debacle with the small merchant. The early morning sun rises behind us, and I fear that we will be spotted so I give the order to pull the plug and we head below the waves.
Once below the surface, Georg, my hydrophone man calls out more screws! Heavy ones at that!
They're far enough away that we can deal with those targets later as we continue our submerged approach on the ore carrier and the large merchant. The thought of what torpedo tubes to use enters my mind. We still have those FaT torpedoes loaded in tubes 3 and 4. I make the decision to use them on these targets and deal with the wrath of BdU later. The idea of sinking a 10,000 tonner should outweigh my use of the new convoy killer torpedoes on a single target. I give the order to Hans the Weapons Officer make sure the torpedo lords in the bow look sharp. I'm going to need those tubes reloaded in a hurry and I promise each of the men up there a beer each if the tubes are loaded by the time we make our second attack.
I pop our attack scope up, and upon settling on the final torpedo aiming data, I order one toropedo fired under the stack and another under the rear mast of each ship. The series of whooshes of compressed air and the slight shudder of the boat signals the launch of the torpedoes.
I stare intently at the stopwatch. The ticking is deafening.
A loud explosion is heard throughout the boat. And then another. And another! And one more! Four hits! The crew lets out a cheer that is quickly muffled by the chiefs.
As the sounds of our targets' screws slowly wind down, Georg reports that he hears bulkheads collapsing on both of the ships. It's only a matter of time before both succumb to their fate. We turn south, towards the sounds of our next target. As we do, Georg reports the first of the two ships is going down. It is quickly followed by the second.
No time for celebration, though. We still have work to do. Raising the scope, I see not one but two more ships approaching!
We make a submerged approach. The torpedomen have earned their beer as I hear the Hans cheerfully report all tubes ready to fire. I check the aiming data through the scope and identify another ore carrier and a small passenger/cargo ship. I order tubes one and two fired on the ore carrier as before, and tube three set magnetically on the passenger/cargo ship. They say they've fixed the magnetic detonators on these new torpedoes and I intend to test that out here.
Two of the eels hit! The magnetic pistol actually works! We're still in a favorable position to attack the ore carrier and I don't want to see that big target go by so I quickly order another fired into her to make up for the dud.
The torpedo hits and the ore carrier quickly sinks by the bow. The crew barely has time to launch the life rafts.
Meanwhile, the smaller passenger/cargo ship continues on. She must have strong bulkheads or a well trained crew as the torpedo does not seem to slow her in the least. She cannot stop for the ore carrier's survivors with a U-boat lurking nearby. I understand her master's dilemma and do not fault him.
We wait until the small ship has gone past the horizon before surfacing. Despite the Grossadmiral's order prohibiting aiding survivors, we are not pirates! We edge the boat over to the liferafts and toss the men some jugs of water and some foodstuffs.
We point them to land and when we have done all we can, we head off on a false course until out of sight of the liferafts and then steer back towards Freetown.
My joy is tempered by the funker who hands me a newly decoded radio message. U-89 reports that she's been attacked by aircraft and is flooding and unable to dive. The same with U-456 and U-753. I also hear that 250,000 German and Italians have surrendered. The war in North Africa has been lost.
We continue on to Freetown.